Monst Drive Squadron Series
Which Hatcher unit do you want the most? Kurose Hibana Ao Minazuki Eric Kinmitsu Hatcher Units Time: 01/19 12PM - 01/30 11:59 Analysis At first glance, Kurose Hibana seems underwhelming. She has Mine Sweeper but it's the weakest version (not M, L, XL or Super), Null Gravity Barrier, and Null Block. We've seen many recent units rise with Lock-all Piercewave, but she got stuck with the older, less powerful Lock-all Shockwave. A Shield/Drone Breaker SS when shields and drones are rarely destructible in high difficulty quests. So why is she the highest rated out of the three newcomer units? Well, her kit is perfect for Vira and Complex, the two Rogue Wood quests in the game. Her Speed is further boosted by Dash, and the cooldown for the first stage of her SS is only 8 turns. Basically, every other turn she'll be able to hit hard due to her high Speed and the extra power from her SS. All that plus having three common Null Abilities will def make her a solid unit to have due to her versatility. Expect her to stay a solid 9.0 unit for a long time. It seems pretty clear why Ao Minazuki is designed the way he is. He was made for the notoriously difficulty True Amaterasu Insidious quest. There are so few units that are viable, people are using things like triple Paradox or even Gregory Onenga to take on it. He is currently the only Water Hatcher monster who handles all three hazards present in that quest. And his SS and Bump Combos are designed to greatly help out his teammates. His bumps lower the enemy's DEF, gives a Speed boost to allies, and his low cooldown SS boosts contacted allies' Attacks for a couple turns. He is almost guaranteed to be the top pick for this quest. Outside of that, it's hard to seem him rise any higher than his current rating, due to being strictly a support unit. His kit is almost purely built on helping his teammates, and he really has no inherent offense outside of picking up mines. If True Amaterasu's quest has pissed you off like so many others, he's a great pickup to add to your box. But otherwise, he might not see much competitive play outside of it. Eric Kinmitsu is almost the polar opposite of Kurose Hibana. On paper he looks amazing. Three Null Abilities? Blast Type Bump Combos? Command SS? How is he not looking at a spot in the Tier List? Unfortunately for Eric, once you dig a little deeper you start to see his cons. Once you start looking at quests, you don't really see where he can really stand out where a different unit wouldn't easily be just as good, if not better. And although he does have a Command SS, the long cooldown (20 + 8 turns) hurts his ability to rely on it like others. One of his three Null Abilities (Null Speed-Down Wall) is also still a rare gimmick, leaving him only with Flight / Null Gravity Barrier. There are tons of great units with that set of Nulls and better (Mine Sweepers) that even with his powerful bumps, he's just not really a standout at the moment. Maybe if speed-down walls become more prevalent, he'll be able to carve out a niche. He has a great mix of abilities and skills, but at the moment it's not enough to separate him from other similar units. Expect him to stick around as a solid 8.5 unit that just lacks that little bit extra to get over the hump. Should You Pull? If you are a vet in desperate need/want of a unit for some of the more difficult quests in the game, you should consider pulling. Kurose Hibana is a great pickup for players lacking top tier units for either Complex or Vira. Ao Minazuki was born to take out True Amaterasu and her Insidious quest. Eric Kinmitsu says sorry. If you're not facing any of these concerns, skip and save for another shot at Excalibur and Binah at the end of January. There's also extra rewards you'll get for pulling on this Hatcher, so if you really are desperately looking into still clearing those above quests, you get an additional incentive of picking up some great items as well. TLDR: For beginners/rookies, save your orbs for Legends Series coming near end of the month. For vets, consider pulling for Ao Minazuki for True Amaterasu Insidious or for Kurose Hibana if you've yet to clear Vira and/or Complex. Series Drop Units Complete all missions for a free Monster Sharl for this Hatcher. Time: 01/19 12PM - 02/02 11:59 Encounter Zephyr! During this event series, you will be able to obtain Zephyr. Her quest has a small chance of appearing after defeating any of the above Extreme or Lethal quests in the series. You will then have 24 hours to complete the quest before it vanishes. For tips and a list of viable monsters, check out the guide for Tsubasa's dungeon here.